anemone help and breeding advice please.

[franks fish]

What is this? Does anyone know I can't find any info about it.

[franks fish]

Here are some pictures lol

[kjboggs]

Looks like a long tentacle, how long have you had it?

[garygb]

Yes, it's Macrodactyla doreensis. They like to bury into the sand and attach to a hard surface, such as the bottom of the tank.

[D-Nak]

What kinda shiz are you looking for? The nit kind?

[franks fish]

Its like secreting sh it from its foot and I have had it a month and it eats fine and it has grown 3x the size since I bought it, also is there any tricks to the trade for breeding clowns? I have a every aquarium store agreeing to buy from me once I'm ready.

[franks fish]

And it is indeed a long tentical. I have alot of experience with saltwater aquariums but I was always told to avoid anemones, my best friend is a marine biologist but he never really studied anemones and focused more on fish behavior and probiotic mixtures.

[franks fish]

Which I am using idk what is in the mixture but its working very well, my fish now have more vibrant colors and some coral I got from a friend like two weeks ago has already started spreading to make more colonies

[D-Nak]

The stuff on its foot is normal. It's mucous that collects around he foot. Once it buries itself you won't notice it.

In terms of breeding your clowns -- the tricks are a good, healthy diet (with Astaxanthin for good color) and VERY clean water. Your goal should be to have babies with minimal defects (blunt noses, flaired gills, kinked spines, etc.) and if you do, cull them -- your reputation depends on it. With so many breeders out there, building your brand with high quality clowns is extremely important. And, finally, don't expect to make much money.

There are plenty of good resources online, and you can also check out this forum:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86

[franks fish]

Thank you very much but at the same time I can turn anything into gold and if I can't I really don't care its more of mental thing for me anyways lol

[franks fish]

Also I have successfully breeder fish that have not been bred in captivity or reported from what iv search but for some odd reason I'm have difficulty's getting my true Perce to breed, I might switch my male with a black occ. To get some onyx clowns I'm not sure but I'm not spending much on it as it is so I just have to sell like 200$ worth of clowns and I'm even lol

[D-Nak]

I'm trying really hard to understand what you're saying but I can't.

If you want Onyx clowns you need to start with Onyx clowns or wild PNG/SI clowns. Black occi +perc doesn't equal Onyx.

[phender]

It looks to me like your fish are still pretty young. My ocellaris and perculas normally didn't start breeding until the female was 2.5"-3" long. If your conditions are good it shouldn't be difficult to get them to breed. Once they start they will lay 200-300 eggs every 2 weeks for the rest of their lives (~20 years).
Raising good quality babies is kind of labor intensive if you don't have any help and have a job or are going to school full time. Its easier now with the algae paste to feed your rotifers, but it is still a lot of water changes, etc.
You may have all the LFS in your area lined up to buy your fish now, but wait until you have 300 babies and the 5 or 6 stores only want 10 each every month. Even with percs, you will flood the market in your area very quickly. Oh yeah, and expect to sell them to the stores at a third or at most half that of which the stores sell them. Maybe less since there is a lot of competition from large scale breeders that are already in the market. Then you have the guys who want to give you store credit instead of cash.

It is very cool raising baby clowns and very rewarding, just not monetarily.

[ThRoewer]

Don't expect them to breed if they are still small - the female usually needs to be about 3/4 of their maximal size to start breeding.

The trick to get them started is to add another pair of fish that spawn easily. I used Pseudochromis fridmani in the past because I wanted to breed them too and because it usually take about 2 weeks for them to get to it if you pair up a nice fat female with a larger male. Calloplesiops altivelis pairs work well too but might be a bit large.
I think the key is to get some sex hormones into the water as a trigger for the clowns to get into the mood.

In the late 90s I had 1 pair ocellaris, 3 pairs of percula and 1 pair of clarkii going. The clarkii produced a nest about every 10 days and I was able to raise around 800 to 1000 per clutch. The ocellaris and percula usually yielded 400 to 600 per clutch every 12 days. The real problem was not to get them to survive the first month but to get them growing to sale size.
Food, water and electricity during the grow out period was costing more than what they could sell for so after a while I had to scale it down because I was running out of space and money.

[franks fish]

The onyx clown is a hybrid between the black occ. And true perc. That's what I have read. Lol and thank you they are almost three years old and I'm pretty sure they are at max size lol but I have a plan and I'm doing this because its fun money is just a plus I have a life going already so its just a matter of time honestly and also what is that paste you are talking about? Can I use veggie cubes to feed the rots?

[Jrsdaddy]

You've read wrong, onyx clowns are not a hybrid of true percs and black occ lol

[franks fish]

This kind of veggie food lol and are they still too small?

[franks fish]

And I'll find the arrival I got that info from lol

[franks fish]

Also thank you all for the information its hard to maintain my stuff finanence wise but I'm making it work lol

[franks fish]

Can't find the artical but what is the out come of breeding a black occ. And true perc then?

[Jrsdaddy]

Originally Posted by franks fish

Can't find the artical but what is the out come of breeding a black occ. And true perc then?

Not sure, moca perc or fake onyx?

[D-Nak]

Originally Posted by franks fish

The onyx clown is a hybrid between the black occ. And true perc. That's what I have read. Lol and thank you they are almost three years old and I'm pretty sure they are at max size lol but I have a plan and I'm doing this because its fun money is just a plus I have a life going already so its just a matter of time honestly and also what is that paste you are talking about? Can I use veggie cubes to feed the rots?

LOL, no. An Onyx clown is a pure Percula. The original "Onyx" as we know it was developed by Bill Addison at C-Quest. Ironically, IIRC, they started as simply PNG Percs with a lot of black (though there are such thing as wild onyx).

You might be thinking of a black photon, which is a hybrid: Darwin Ocellaris and Onyx Perc.

NO, you cannot use veggie cubes to feed the rots.

[franks fish]

Can you send me a link ?

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by D-Nak

LOL, no. An Onyx clown is a pure Percula.

+1
They come usually from northern percula distribution, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
The southern Great Barrier Reef percula don't have that strong black coloration and are in their orange a bit more towards red.

Originally Posted by D-Nak

The original "Onyx" as we know it was developed by Bill Addison at C-Quest. Ironically, IIRC, they started as simply PNG Percs with a lot of black (though there are such thing as wild onyx).

Well, I would say they were "developed" by mother nature.
The ones in my avatar were wild Solomon percula and some of their offspring of every clutch was looking like them pretty much from their first few months on.

To my understanding all they did at C-Quest was to select those few offspring that had the "onyx" coloring from an early age on: The Onyx Percula - A conversation with Bill Addison

Unfortunately it seems to me that was their main concern and they neglected to filter out the ones with "boxer-noses". So if you see an onyx percula with a slightly (or not so slightly) shorter upper jaw you can be pretty much certain that it is a captive bread.

Originally Posted by D-Nak

You might be thinking of a black photon, which is a hybrid: Darwin Ocellaris and Onyx Perc.

+1
They have a fully grown pair of those at California Reef Co. here in Fremont, but those also have the foreshortened upper jaw like too many captive bread clowns.

[Grandlotus]

I have a pair of breeding clowns very neat to watch them.

As mentioned above, the female needs to get to about 1.5x the size of the male before you can expect them to breed.